The OIG testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs regarding Medicaid Fraud and Overpayments. Up front, it was noted that the Medicaid program has 67 million beneficiaries, costing $600 billion annually with projected improper Medicaid payments at about $59 billion. Key points of the testimony were:

Complete and reliable national Medicaid data—which is necessary for effective program oversight and to quickly detect and address improper payments, fraud, waste, or quality concerns—is limited.

Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) data was mandated to address problems with national Medicaid claims and eligibility data. All states except Wisconsin and the District of Columbia have begun reporting data to T‐MSIS, but the data elements may not mean the same thing across states. CMS must ensure that the same data elements are consistently reported and uniformly interpreted across states.

Eighty percent of all Medicaid beneficiaries receive part or all of their services through managed care entities who are required to report medical claims data to states who then report it to CMS via T‐MSIS. Without accurate and timely data, it is not possible to analyze costs, utilization or trends; evaluate benefits; or determine the quality of services being provided. Medicaid managed care encounter data was found to be incomplete and CMS needs to ensure this corrected.

Lack of quality national Medicaid data to identify fraud schemes and other vulnerabilities that cross state lines is hampering enforcement efforts. Identifying schemes in one state can alert other states to patterns of fraudulent or abusive practices that may be occurring in their jurisdiction and can be referred to law enforcement agencies. CMS must improve Medicaid data to ensure T‐MSIS achieves its full potential.

States have not fully enacted enhanced provider screening that prevents bad actors from entering the Medicaid program to reduce improper payments and protect patients from harm, such as conducting fingerprint‐based criminal background checks and site visits. States need timely, complete, and accurate data to identify the providers seeking access to Medicaid monies and patients. CMS must ensure that states timely and fully implement critical safeguards.

The Medicaid improper payment rate is 10.1 percent and CMS is working with state Medicaid agencies to develop corrective action plans that address state‐specific reasons for improper payments as a part of CMS’s Payment Error Rate Measurement Program (PERM). Additional guidance to the states by CMS is needed. OIG has also identified a number of states that inflate payment rates to increase their Federal Medicaid funding and CMS needs to closely review state Medicaid plans and plan amendments for potentially inappropriate cost‐shifting from states to the federal government.

The OIG has found that states are not always correctly determining Medicaid eligibility for beneficiaries. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed states to expand Medicaid eligibility and claim a higher Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, but incorrectly determining beneficiaries’ eligibility could result in the improper shift of costs from the state to the federal government. States must comply with requirements to verify applicants’ income, citizenship, identity, and other eligibility criteria in order to verify eligibility criteria.

Medicaid is overpaying for prescription drugs due to underpaid rebates. Manufacturers are generally required to pay rebates to the states for covered outpatient drugs under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program that includes reporting product and pricing information to CMS that is used to calculate the rebates owed. Manufacturer misreporting can result in manufacturers’ underpaying rebates, which inappropriately increases federal and state Medicaid costs. Overseeing states’ collection of manufacturer rebates remains a challenge for HHS.

Medicaid must know with whom it is doing business, not only to prevent improper payments to ineligible providers, but also to protect beneficiaries from low‐quality care. The varying standards, and in some cases, minimal vetting, for Medicaid personal care services (PCS) providers, potentially expose the Medicaid program to financial fraud and Medicaid beneficiaries to abuse and neglect. CMS needs to improve states’ ability to monitor billing and care quality by enrolling PCS attendants as providers, or require them to register with their state Medicaid agencies, and assign each attendant a unique identifier.

The OIG found that up to 99 percent of critical incidents of abuse and neglect of developmentally disabled were not reported to the appropriate law enforcement or state agencies as required. The OIG worked with the HHS Administration for Community Living, Office for Civil Rights, CMS, as well as with the DOJ and States to create a joint report entitled Ensuring Beneficiary Health and Safety in Group Homes Through State Implementation of Comprehensive Compliance Oversight. It features suggested model practices for states and CMS with four main aspects of handling critical incidents: investigation, reporting, correction, and transparency and accountability. It also detailed suggestions as to what actions states should take when group homes repeatedly fail to report incidents.

The OIG partners with state Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs) which, last year, reported more than 1,500 convictions, nearly 1,000 civil settlements and judgments, and more than $1.8 billion in criminal and civil recoveries. The 50 existing MFCUs receive 75 percent of their funding on a matching basis from the federal government but often they encounter severe restrictions on their ability to maintain or expand staff.

Richard P. Kusserow served as DHHS Inspector General for 11 years. He currently is CEO of Strategic Management Services, LLC (SM), a firm that has assisted more than 3,000 organizations and entities with compliance related matters. The SM sister company, CRC, provides a wide range of compliance tools including sanction-screening.